At least one person is dead and 18 wounded after two girls from ages seven to eight were used to bomb a market in northeast Nigeria, police say. The girls activated their explosive devices minutes apart, according to witnesses. Both perished in the blast.

The shopping area was full of people when the incident took place, police in Maiduguri, Borno state, said. No one has come forward to take responsibility for the bombings, but Islamist extremist group Boko Haram has used similar attack methods.

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"They got out of a rickshaw and walked right in front of me without showing the slightest sign of emotion," Abdulkarim Jabo, a militia member in Maiduguri, told BBC on Monday. "I tried to speak with one of them, in Hausa and in English, but [they] didn't answer. I thought they were looking for their mother."

He said the first girl’s explosives went off after she walked toward a market stall.

Last week, female bombers killed at least 45 people in Madagali during a double suicide campaign.